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Text Dark clouds rolled gloomily through the violet sky above, and Luna grimaced a bit as a cold, chilling wind shot by, blowing a few loose boards down from a collapsed building nearby before she shouted irritably: "Scrivener Blooms, search faster!" "Shut up, Luna!" Scrivener's voice was strangled and frustrated as he struggled through the mostly-collapsed building that had once belonged to Kilby Kwolek and her team of engineers, the male cursing under his breath as a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the ceiling scratched along his shoulder: not deep, but more than enough to sting a bit as Luna winced and glanced at a faint scratch that appeared on her own shoulder. "Horses of Heaven, it's not even the fact that everywhere I turn there's another sharp object trying to stab me, it's… the freaking reek! It's like oil and rotten corpses and… can't Pollen or Pinkamena do this?" "Nay, I am still unsure as to how much I can trust Pollen, and to send Pinkamena into a den of inequity filled with knives and weapons and Odin knows what kind of nonsense is sealed away in Cowlick's labs would be like giving a foal the keys to the candy shop. She would come back outside with everything apart from what we require." Luna retorted, then she winced a bit as another strong wind burst by, and the entire warehouse creaked, a few panels of broken glass falling out of a shattered window. The upper levels of the three storey building had both collapsed inwards, giving it a look like a deflated cake… a cake made of metal, steel, and large planks of rotten wood covered in peeling paint, that was. Luna grimaced a bit as she stepped back, looking quickly back and forth over the wreckage… but they had just barely been able to pry off the front door, revealing a narrow tunnel beyond… and after a quick argument, Luna had shrunk Scrivener down to about half his normal size and then firmly booted him into the passage. Scrivy cursed under his breath as he scampered through the damaged hallways, muttering to himself irritably and not caring whether or not Luna could hear every word, roughly the size of a foal and carrying a satchel bag almost as large as he was. The ceiling above was covered in cracks and rumbled ominously now and then, as if it had been waiting for a victim to try and enter the catacombs of the strange building. It was half storage facility, half jumbled cluster of engineering laboratories, and the male cursed to himself as he ran into another blockade of rubble, the ceiling above half-collapsed and all manner of beams, chunks of metal, and what looked like several broken crates forming an unstable wall. "Luna, this isn't worth it…" "Scrivener Blooms, we have searched everywhere else, and found little we could use: in Rarity's boutique, aye, there was a good supply of precisely-cut gemstones, and in searching the few storage warehouses that had not suffered demolition or arson, we discovered more of what we require." Luna replied half-forcefully, half-pleadingly, and she pawed at the ground with a hoof as she grimaced a little. "A simple wooden wagon will not survive passing over the Bifrost, and even the Pegasus wagon we used to move some of other possessions barely made it through the buffeting energies… or does thou want all our things burning up to dust as we run across the rainbow?" "And what makes you so sure that Cowlick's crazy composite junk on a layer of gemstone armor is going to actually let a wagon survive?" Scrivener asked dryly, as he inspected the barricade before carefully beginning to wiggle his way through an open corner, adding in a mumble: "Your warrior instincts aren't right about everything…" "Thou shalt eat those words when thou finds the composite." Luna replied flatly as she glared at the structure, huffing. "'Tis a jar of goo. How difficult is it to find a jar of goo?" "It's a jar of goo inside a demolished structure twice the size of a hoof-ball field that's mostly collapsed in on itself."Scrivener muttered, and Luna only grumbled in response as the male wormed his way down the corridor beyond with a curse, past large chunks of rock and metal debris that stuck out of the walls and ceiling like teeth as he tossed an apprehensive look at the sunken, cracked roof. Then Scrivy winced as dust pattered down, something shifting above as Luna's eyes sharpened outside the structure, leaning forwards nervously as she felt the twitch of emotion before she asked in a quiet voice, her words continuing to carry to Scrivener as if she stood right beside him instead of outside the building: "What is it?" Scrivy only shook his head quietly, edging forwards before his eyes flicked to the side, where a doorway stood open… and he hurried into the room beyond with a quiet sigh of relief. The ceiling here was damaged but didn't slump as low, and the shambles and debris scattered from the room were obviously from some battle that had once taken place here, not a destructive collapse. "Just need to be careful, that's all… place is a wreck, talking too loud might be enough to bring some parts of it down." Luna nodded slowly outside, then she closed her eyes, asking in a clear thought: Should we communicate in this fashion then, my daydreamer? "No, no, that actually creeps me out a little and I'm in a safe bubble for now…" Scrivener halted as he looked around the mostly-empty square room, heading towards a set of dust-covered cupboards and accidentally pulling one door off when he tried to open it, wincing and tossing it aside to peer inside. "Yeah, this must be an old lab." There were broken beakers, dusty glass objects, and instruments of every shape and size in the cupboards, much of it overgrown with ugly mosses and molds, and Scrivener took his time checking through the room before he sighed a bit as he glanced nervously back towards the doorway… before pausing and frowning as he looked over the room again. His eyes settled on a pile of debris in one corner, the wall behind this cracked and the paint peeled and broken… and Scrivener carefully brushed some of the rocks aside before he smiled a little as he found a hole that had been hammered in the wall, broken duct-work beyond leading into another room. He carefully slid into this, making his way past dead wires and cables and wincing as he stepped carefully over broken metal before stepping out and into the room beyond… and he grimaced a bit, looking back and forth as his eyes watered from the smell that assaulted his nose. Half-collapsed and decayed shelves leaned against the wall, slumping and broken here and there, many long-having spilled their contents into a congealed mess on the floor, and unidentifiable molds crawled over much of the rest of the room as Scrivener grimaced before he glanced towards the doorway… but the door was laying in cracked pieces, and had been blocked off by a collapse of debris likely a long time ago. The male studied the shelves… and then he winced as he stepped forwards and noted a large, broken glass jar, touching it and gazing down at the petrified gray sludge that had solidified over and around it. "Well, I think I just found the composite, Luna. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be of much help or use to us at this point." Luna grimaced at this, muttering: "And passing over the Bifrost will dispel any magic I cast… art thou sure?" Scrivener made a face as he looked over the shelves, looking over the chemical mixes, large cans, and the other odds and ends that rested in various states of decay over the shelves before he sighed and glanced to the side… then frowned a bit as he realized there was a sign under the dust, muttering: "Wait." The male stood carefully up on his rear hooves, blowing the dust away… and he coughed a few times with a grumble as it burst back over his features, blinking a bit before he read quickly over it: a master list of the chemicals kept in the storage room, and which noted… "'Additional supplies are available on request from the storage vault located in the basement.' Great. How the hell am I supposed to get to the basement?" "Get out of the facility, Scrivener Blooms, we shall find a way down to these vaults. I did not expect it to be so expansive." Luna said quietly, and Scrivener nodded inside the storage room as the winged unicorn sighed and restlessly began to pace outside, grumbling: "Damn thy remaining squidgy eye, Odin, for being so all-seeing and yet leaving us to forage for ourselves in a dead world for a plight as simple as a wagon…" Scrivener, meanwhile, was carefully making his way back through the duct… but when he emerged into the room beyond, he staggered dumbly and frowned a bit as he looked up, realizing it was darker… before he slowly gazed to the side and grit his teeth as he saw Valthrudnir standing nearby, one hand leaning on the countertop, the other flipping a coin as the Jötnar smiled at him disdainfully. "This is a bad time." "No time like the present, I would argue… besides, I'm just here to give you an offer." Valthrudnir caught the coin in mid-fall with an easy flick of his wrist, then he tossed it towards Scrivy, and the earth pony winced back a bit… but the coin halted in midair, hovering slowly in front of him as the dragon said mockingly: "Do you know how pathetic it is that the rainbow bridge is giving you all this trouble? Why, I can pass through the world's layers as I please… even as an echo, I'm more powerful than you can ever dream. And all that power… can be yours. You just have to give in… you just have to ask." Scrivener studied the coin silently: it rotated slowly in front of his eyes, Scrivy's profile engraved on one side, and Luna's on the other… and then he closed his eyes and shook his head briskly, and when he opened them, the dragon was gone. Instead, he could hear Luna's worried voice, asking him what had happened, why she had felt a burst of unnatural static that had blocked out their connection for a moment… and then Scrivener shuddered a bit before he murmured: "Uninvited guest." Luna gritted her teeth outside the compound, saying quietly: "Then hurry thy way out, Scrivener Blooms." "Yes, hurry, Scrivener Blooms... hurry up and die." Valthrudnir's voice added eerily, and Scrivener flinched even as he headed towards the ruptured hall, turning and fighting shivers as he began to make his way carefully back towards the barricade, before he risked a glance over his shoulder… and then stared in horror at the sight of a wave of black goo slowly rising up behind him, making metal and debris stir as the rumbling wave of dark mud and muck hissed towards him like a living thing. "You'll give in to me, cheater, one way or the other." Scrivener cursed as he spun around, panicking, and he yanked his way through the narrow tunnel in the barricade as Valthrudnir laughed, the earth pony crashing against walls of metal and fallen wooden rafters as he heard that horrible sound growing, dust pattering down as rotten boards and stone shifted and debris began to rumble unsteadily… and then the male yanked himself free of the tunnel and staggered to his hooves, looking over his shoulder with hard, anxious pants before he cursed as he saw nothing there. It had all been in his head… and then his eyes slowly roved up as a rafter he had banged against during his terrified attempt to flee cracked loudly, as a few more large pieces of metal and debris fell… and the earth pony's eyes widened before he spun around and sprinted down the hallway as one of the rafters gave away with an almost-agonized scream, cracking loudly down the middle as tears ripped through the ceiling, chunks of roof and building beginning to collapse inwards as Luna shouted desperately for Scrivener and Valthrudnir's laughter ripped through his mind. Scrivy couldn't even keep track of where he was running, as dust and chunks of ceiling and wood hailed down around him, cursing as chunks of metal bit at him and the ceiling rumbled, throwing himself forwards into a low skid over his stomach beneath a broken pipe and hurling himself to his hooves as he shot through a doorway, twisting towards where he could see Luna leaning down in the exit, shouting for him… before the winged unicorn glanced up in shock as the front of the building shattered and a hail of wooden boards and several enormous rafters fell towards her, the female snarling as her horn flashed and her eyes glowed as she leapt backwards and anchored herself, catching the avalanche in midair with grit teeth. Scrivener ducked as he scrambled through the narrow, broken passageway leading out before the foal sized male bolted through Luna's legs with a wince, continuing to sprint away before the winged unicorn leapt backwards and gave a mighty flap of her wings, launching herself to safety as the glow faded out from around the floating debris and it fell with a rumbling crash. Dust and wreckage burst upwards from the warehouse as Scrivener half-fell over as he spun around, breathing hard, a multitude of small, shallow cuts and scours over his frame as Luna gritted her teeth, her eyes glowing slightly as the building rumbled and shuddered. Finally, the collapse halted, leaving it looking more deformed and broken than it had been before as Scrivy breathed hard in and out, tasting dust and apocalypse air as Luna shivered a little and drew her eyes slowly along the front of the building… then she looked silently towards Scrivener Blooms as the male grimaced and rubbed at his face, murmuring: "Sorry, Luna." "There is no need to apologize, Scrivener Blooms… I am only thankful that thou art alright, and still in one piece after what happened." Luna said quietly, looking down at him silently, and then she smiled faintly as she bowed her head towards him, the male wincing before he flexed as his size slowly returned to normal, breathing hard as he dropped his head forwards and a shudder ran through his frame: both from the pulse that went through his body as well as the shock of what had just occurred. "I could not… see what happened. I only sensed thy panic… it seems that the echoing corruption is capable of barring our link." "I don't like this." the male muttered, and Luna smiled at him faintly before they quietly nuzzled one-another, then stepped closer and embraced tightly, the earth pony sighing softly. "I'm sorry. It's my fault that the place collapsed and my fault that we lost access to the composite. I panicked." "Fear not, Scrivener Blooms, we need only reach the bottom levels of the facility… and 'twill be a much easier task, especially with my mood so soured." Luna said mildly, and then her horn began to glow as she turned to look at the structure, saying distastefully: "I never much cared for such large and ominous structures, after all." And with that, Luna flicked her horn and sent a blue fireball rocketing into the front of the building, and it exploded in a sapphire burst that began to greedily spread flames over the collapsed structure, the winged unicorn looking pleased with herself as Scrivener stared before she huffed and waved a hoof grouchily. "Oh, think not so badly of me! It will burn quickly to the ground, and then we shall easily be able to find our way to the basements with that death-trap out of the way. Furthermore, it sits on the outskirts, with debris of metal wall to its back and nothing else nearby… and 'tis not like it matters even should a wildfire occur, in this damaged world." "That's… not the point, Luna, the point is more that you don't just set buildings on fire because they're in the way." Scrivener said flatly, and Luna snorted at this and shoved at him, the earth pony grumbling before he shoved back at her before they both winced and looked up as a large section of the building collapsed beneath the inferno now surging hungrily over it, black smoke rising high into the air. "This better not attract Hellhounds." "Hellhounds fear fire. Besides, their kind hunts near the Gray Mountains, where the world is cold and warped." Luna muttered, and she shook her head slowly before she said softly: "Come, Scrivener. By the time we dig up a serviceable wagon from Ponyville, these ruins should be nothing but ashes and cinders." Yet the two lingered for a few moments all the same, watching the building burn and black smoke rise into the air, leaning against each other as Scrivener closed his eyes and Luna silently wrapped a foreleg around him, the brilliant, destructive flames reflected in her dark cyan irises. Top ↑ Category:Transcript Category:Story